More than anything else, history is about reading, and reading is what we'll do in this course. We have LOTS of readings to tackle. However students, like historians, have limited time to read. Fortunately, there are some basic reading strategies that all historians employ making their reading more efficient, enjoyable, and useful. Take a look at this website below which highlights some of these strategies.
Points of Entry:
"Exploring the Early Americas" Exhibit
Lakota Winter Counts:
Pre-contact Meso-America
"Longue Duree" conference paper
Comparative view of the Americas:
Hopi Oral History:
Thoughts and Questions for Discussion:
Questions for blog discussion:
List and analyze 2 quotes from the reading. What is Charles Mann arguing in these passages? How is this related to the larger themes of the week discussed in class?
"Nor did the English regard the Dawnland wetu as primitive, its multiple layers of mats, which trapped insulating layers of air, were "warmer than our English houses," sighed the colonist William Wood." pg. 43
ReplyDeleteCharles Mann is arguing the preconcieved notion that Indians were not primitive and were indeed architectural sound . The wetu houses were warm and dry. At least warmer then William Woods home.
"Tenochtitlan dazzled its invaders. The Spaniards gawped like yokels at the wide streets, ornately carved buildings....The same novelty attended the force of a thousand men that kept the crowded streets immaculate.(streets that weren't ankle deep in sewage!" pg 140
ReplyDeleteCharles Mann is stating that unlike the sewage infested streets of Europe, the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan was immaculate and clean. The Spaniards could have never conceived such a thing. This passage is just confirming that mesoamerica was a leader in technological , cultural, political, and sanitary advances.
"their guns were little more than noisemakers" pg. 64
ReplyDeleteBy this Charles Mann is saying that European guns were not as efficient as the Natives longbows. The European's guns had terrible aim compared to the arrow shots of the Indians.
"Smallpox radiated throughout the empire like ink spreading through tissue paper" pg 97
Mann meant that in the New World smallpox was a disease that had never occurred. So there was not any immunities to it which caused it to spread fast among Natives that had never witness this disease before
"The Inka wanted to meld together the area's religion, economics, and arts. Their methods were audacious, brutal, and efficient: they removed entire populations from their homelands." pg.71
ReplyDeleteWhile Mann is quite clear in depicting the vastness and power of the Inkan empire, I just found this particular passage interesting in regards to our discussion of history being cyclical since in short time the Inka's would be forcibly removed by Europeans by the exact same means.
"He assembled a force of 200,000 men and built thirteen ships in a plan to assault Tenochitlan from the water...But his bold resolve would have come to nothing without the cast indigenous army whose leaders believed they could use the Spanish presence to catalyze the destruction of the Triple Alliance" pg.143
Mann is providing a piece of information that is actually little known in the western world. Most people assume Cortes' military might was the sole factor in overwhelming the Aztec people when in fact he received a majority of support from their main rival Tlaxcala.
"The Inka and the Wampanoag were as different as Turks and Swedes. But Dobyns discovered, in effect, that their separate battles with Spain and England followed a similar biocultural template, one that explained the otherwise perplexing fact that every Indian culture, large or small, eventually succumbed to Europe." pg 70
ReplyDeleteMann is saying that despite differences in culture and the way of living, it was not enough to overcome Europe. Both fell victim to Europe in similar fashions.
"The Inka losses were not foredained. Their military was hampered by the cult of personality around its deified generals, which meant both that leaders were not easily replaced when they were killed or captured and that innovation in the lower ranks was not encouraged." pg 95
Mann is stating here that Inka military generals were looked up to and were almost glorified as leaders and were almost irreplaceable. If they were killed or captured there was no one to take their place because innovation was looked down upon. This could have been one of several factors that lead to their downfall.
“…. Europeans were impressed by American technology […] Indian moccasins were so much more comfortable and water proof” pg. 64
ReplyDeleteThis is a side of Native Americans that is rare seen, I was fascinated by this perspective of their compassion for the Spaniards. Despite natives being impressed by guns, horses and all other military technology for once a reader is able to read about Europeans being impressed by native technology. (Other than their arrows.)
“.. Indians were surprised when strange looking people appeared on their shores, but unlike Europeans they were not surprised that such strange people existed” pg. 156
This passage explains how unlike Europeans Indians were not as self revolved, they believed in the possibilities of other humans existing parallel to themselves, this detail many people may over look because of a Eurocentric way of thought. a passage that depicts a thought many people may have had in the past, while demeaning natives and not believing that they can have complex beliefs.
"...the Americas lacked animals suitable for domestication into beasts of burden; without animals to haul carts, individuals on rough terrain can use skids almost as effectively." p.249 In this quote Mann is explaining why the native people of South America did not use the wheel other than a toy. The Indians did not have domesticated animals that could pull carts and the land in which they lived was too rough to pull a cart anyways. He is saying Indians did not use the wheel because of a lack of intelligence but because they had no use for it.
ReplyDelete"Indian fire had the greatest impact in the middle of the continent, which Native Americans transformed into prodigious game farm." p.282 Mann is arguing against the common belief that all Indians lived in harmony with nature by never altering their environment. Indians in North America would burn large amounts of the forest and created open grass lands.
"The a huddle of small houses surrounding a dozen little stores, Altar was, Dobyns said 'the end of the earth'" pg 69
ReplyDeleteMann is making it clear that the various groups of Indians had a very provincial view of the World. Their localized view would actually come to the Spanish's advantage because it made it easier for the Spanish to gain allies in taking down the Aztecs.
"Everything we knew is supposed to be wrong" pg 18
Stuart Fiedel said this to Mann and I feel like what he is saying is real because since we were young we were taught that Indians were a primitive and less developed people, when in actuality they were quite opposite.
Governor bradford is said to have attributed the plague to "the good hand of God"
ReplyDeleteMann was showing how the Europeans felt about all the Indians that had died due to the smallpox disease. They felt as if God had cleared the way for them to settle live their lives. Later in the paragraph it says how they felt as if after the disease had killed off most the Indians, that the land was now more pure and would not be affected by any of "those people".
"The Primary goal of Dawnland education was molding character"
According to Mann the Dawnland education only had one way of teaching. That was to grow be honest,brave, have good moral values. Being outgoing talking alot was "frowned upon" however, it was though who hardly spoke but when they did they had something important to were the only man they love.
one quote that I felt was interesting to me was when the book mentioned that in 1537 Pope Paul III said that"Indians themselves indeed were true men" and "should not be deprived of their liberty" and "reduced to our service like brute"pg58. This is a very contradicting statement by the Pope because the Spanish colonies were practicing the encomienza system which enslaved many native people in their own lands and coerced them to covert to christianity. Also this stament that was implemented by Mann also argues that the Catholic church was acknowledging the native people of the Americas as the Noble savage which would be a term used to justify the "whitenin"g and the christianizing of these people. Also the idea that the native people were true men was constructed due to the belief that the native people were innocent and were "gente de razon" which gave the church the right to seize and covert them because they would then have their soul saved and become the "real man".
ReplyDeleteAnother quote that I found interesting in Mann's book was when Governor Bradford was claimed to have said that the plague[diseases]was "the gooh hand of God" which favored pur begginings by sweeping away great multitudes of the natives....that he might make room for us" pg 61. This quote suggests that the death of the native population was manifested by god rather than the actual caused being the pathogens brought by the Europeans.Also this quote leads to another suggestion that Mann is arguing that the pilgrims were percieivng the natives as inferior due thier differences in culture which served as an ideal justification to execute the native population and create more space for pilgrim settlement.
Something I could not swallow was when Charles Mann wrote "[Inka} military was hampered by the cult of personality around its deified generals... and that innovation in the lower ranks was not encouraged" (95). Inka culture had to be highly specialized but it seems rather lazy to conclude that disease hit the upper class so spectacularly it caused the erosion of an empire.
ReplyDeleteAnother theory that struck me as incomplete was "The tally cannot be taken as exact, but the fact remains: a single epidemic killed more than three of every four indigenous Siberians in that area" (117). Mann makes that connection that many Indians crossed over from Siberia and so the evidence for Siberians is valid for Indians. However Mann himself writes, earlier in the book, that people might of come to America in different ways and multiple places. Mann's conclusion on that basis seems rather flimsy.
"The awful truth that [a gun] could not shoot as far as an arrow could fly" (64)
ReplyDelete"Just as guns did not determine the outcome of New England, steel was not the decisivefactor in Peru." (91)
Mann's argument in each of these quotes is that the material definitions of why the Europeans conquered the Native groups is not true. He gives examples of how the Native people had better weaponry and had little use for the "advanced technology" brought over by the Europeans.
"pilgrim writer universally reported that Wampanoag families were close and loving-more so than English Families, some though".(41)
ReplyDeleteMann's argument in this quote is that Indian families were much as a family unit then that of there counterpart the English. The English also thought that Indian went from infants to adults instantly having no childhood, but that was not the case. Indian's encouraged growth and development during there adolescent years.
"Cut short By Cortes, Mexica philosophy did not have the chance to reach as afar as Greek or Chinese philosophy."(123)
The civilizations that these "Inidans" lived in were socially and philosophy complex but they development was cut short by the conquerors and the social system deteriorated under Spanish.